Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Announcing the Anders Larson-Toich Memorial Scholarship

Thanks to the generous support of the Anders Larson-Toich Foundation, the GCA will now annually award a tuition scholarship of $1250 to one of its students. Just as Anders Larson-Toich discovered a passion for the kind of drawing taught at GCA, this earnest spirit will be honored in another, in his name.

Anders Larson-Toich packed a great deal into life before
cancer took him at 23. He was born in New York, NY on December 27, 1984. He
lived in a number of New York’s neighborhoods and absorbed much of the rich
traditions that this city’s myriad cultures have to offer. He attended private,
public and parochial schools, each
offering a different learning experience. He applied and was accepted to the
prestigious LaGuardia High School on New York’s Upper West Side in their Fine
Arts program. During his junior year, he was diagnosed with sarcoma and began a
course of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatments that proved
debilitating enough that he had to be home-schooled all of his senior year. Yet
he still managed to graduate from LaGuardia.

Despite all this, he continued on with his
life, enjoying friends, art, music and trips to his favorite city, London. He
put together a portfolio and was accepted at The Parsons School of Design. Once
again, the burden of treatment proved to be too much for him to continue at
Parsons. During one of his recovery periods from treatment, his cousin sent him
a link to a truly unique and magical place, The Grand Central Academy of Art.
He had finally found a place that was close to his artistic heart. He spoke to
everybody about the school and extolled its virtues.

Unfortunately, in late 2007, he was unable
to continue at the Academy due to the progression of his illness. In April
2008, Anders lost his long battle with cancer and passed away. His style,
uniqueness and love of life will always be a continuing inspiration to us all.